The Telugu Desam Party’s election manifesto has kicked up a wider debate not only in the political circles, but also among the general public. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has promised everything under the sun to the people free of cost: free supply of rice up to 20 kg per month, instead of Rs 2 a kg rice scheme; free supply of power for 12 hours for farmers, power looms and all poor households having two bulbs, a fan and a television set; free supply of water to crops without charging any water cess; free supply of colour televisions to all poor people; free supply of LPG cylinder and stove to all poor families; distribution of 1-2 acres of agricultural land to landless poor; free house sites and houses to every poor family and free education from primary schooling to post-graduation for SCs, STs, BCs, minorities and economically backward upper castes.
And above all, there is Cash Transfer Scheme, under which the TDP government would pay Rs Rs 2,000, Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,000 to the each poorest of poor, poor and middle class family respectively. According to Sakshi report, which ridiculed Naidu’s “all free” promises, it costs Rs 1,13,600 crore to implement them; which means, in the first year, the budget should be of the magnitude of Rs 2 lakh crore. And it says only the World Bank would be able to provide so much funding to implement the budget.
The pro-Telugu Desam dailies, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, too, carried Naidu’s manifesto as their banner stories but without making any comment or criticism. However, AJ carried opinions of other leaders – K Rosaiah, Jayaprakash Narayan and Parakala Prabhakar, who criticised Naidu for announcing such an impracticable manifesto without showing the source of revenues. Eenadu published a sarcastic cartoon, stating that there is still some space left in the huge bundle of promises to introduce some more schemes.
The rebel trouble in all political parties is another important political development. In Mahakootami, the trouble is much more, as many official candidates of TDP are still in the fray in the constituencies allotted to TRS and CPI-M; while the candidates of latter parties are also in fray for seats allotted to other partners of Mahakootami. This is causing a sort of uneasiness among the Kootami; nobody knows whether they are going to cooperate with each other during and after polling. Though Naidu said TD rebels would be suspended, it would be mere eyewash.
The public meetings of YSR, KCR and Naidu, of course were carried prominently in the dailies, according to their political preferences.
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